Grangalan Dolls
by Mr. Ite
Summary: Sephiroth/Zack/Cloud. Cloud remembers through both his own eyes and Zack's the mission that changed his mind about love. homo and het. poly. not graphic.
1. Chapter 1

_Hello! This fic is _not_ part of my 'expanded universe' fan-canon and doesn't require your knowledge of any of my other works, although (true to form) it will cross reference other works (as a treat to readers). So why not canon? While I don't find any of the subject matter in this fic morally reprehensible (quite the opposite) it is just at odds with how I view the characters. Also, it also assumes that the Compilation exists (*gasp!*) which is far harder for me to write seriously. This fic is a response to a challenge made by the lovely Sai at the Genesis Awards. Challenge heartily accepted! What is fanfiction for, if not exploration?_

**Grangalan Dolls**

**Chapter 1**

When Cloud sees Meteor, he sees a tiny grangalan doll. Everyone else sees it for what it isn't – the problem. But as the red glow brightens the bridge of the _Highwind_, Cloud knows what they don't. Meteor is big, sure. But it's not the big doll.

There's a secluded alcove on the airship's bridge – near where the navigation officers tinker at standing dials and widgets. It's quiet there, facing a column of curving windows. Cloud stands there sometimes when Cid is barking loud orders. If he looks down out of this glass fishbowl he can see the Planet gliding beneath them. Tifa sometimes finds him. She asks him how he's adjusting, as if he wakes up every day a different person. It's no different this morning.

"How are we doing, Cloud?"

"We are doing."

She hums through a smile. "And how's that going?"

"It's going." His own absurdity gets to him. They both smile. He forgets sometimes that it's okay to do that. Maybe he needs her daily reminders after all.

Tifa saddles up beside him. "Wow. It's like a whole new sunrise now."

"Sailors take warning."

"Hmm?"

"Oh, it's this old adage. I learned it when I was a kid. Red sky at night, sailors' delight. Red sky at morning, sailors take warning. The colour of the sky used to determine the likeliness of a storm."

"Now the sky's red all the time."

"Yeah. If the oceans weren't polluted, we'd have the most confused sailors ever."

They smile again. It makes Cloud's face feel good.

"Say," Tifa cocks an eyebrow. "Nibelheim wasn't a fishing village. How did you learn that rhyme?"

"I... I guess I didn't. That was Zack. Zack learned it as a kid. There was a fishing village a few kilometres south of Gongaga. I... he went there with his parents in the summers, caught fastitocalons. When he was ten, he was stung by a crown lance. His parents never took him back. It was called Vissen's Haven."

"Wow," Tifa says. "You really are his living legacy."

"I guess I am."

Cloud still has Zack's memories. He's regained his own, of course, but they're living parallel with the illusionary world that Jenova constructed for him. The memories that don't fit in his reality he has to put into Zack's past. It doesn't occur to him to do so until moments like this, when it's brought to his attention that something isn't right. Cloud supposes that it will be like that for the rest of his life.

It works out okay most of the time. It doesn't really conflict. He can compartmentalize – adapt to the different scenarios that play out in his recollections.

It only becomes a problem when he remembers the same moment as both people.

His true memory is always stronger – it's been that way since he emerged from the Lifestream – but recalling their time together is always a little off. Like watching a 3D film without the glasses. Not just visually, either. Emotionally. The way Zack sees colour, the way he perceives the same smells differently.

Sees. Percieves. Cloud thinks about him like he's still around. Memories take place in the past, but occur in the now. It hurts his brain. He wasn't that good of a puzzler to begin with.

"You still here, Cloud?" Tifa asks.

He's gazing down out of the windows at the Corel desert, a barren sandy badlands.

"Yeah," he says. "I'm still here."

He thinks, '_So is he_.'

* * *

Corel hadn't always been a desert.

It was their second to last mission before Nibelheim, five years before Meteor. The wizards at Shinra still hadn't developed a drug for motion sickness. Cloud cowered in the corner of the truck as it rolled under the overpass and out of Costa del Sol.

Zack laughed. "We haven't been on wheels two minutes and your skeleton's falling out."

The truck's bed was spacious. Crates were stacked near the front, at the cab. Cloud was sitting on one. He had thrown his mask and helmet off and his head was buried in his hands. His semi-automatic machine gun leaned against another crate, barrel towards the army-green cloth canopy draped over their mobile headquarters.

Zack could stand perfectly still in the bed of the truck, despite the jostling and jerking movements over boulders and mu-holes. The wide blade of his buster sword crossed behind his back, and the handle extended up past his right shoulder in a neat diagonal above the iron pauldron.

Cloud burped his words. "Organs, sir. Not skeleton... Feels like... my organs... are falling out."

"Right. I wouldn't know. I've never had motion sickness."

Zack ruffled Cloud's yellow hair with his hand. Cloud pulled his head up with great effort and mustered a smile that made his face hurt.

Zack almost laughed. "Hang in there, buddy. I'm gonna go get briefed, and I'll give you the reader's digest version when I get back."

"Why... did you say... digest?"

Zack walked to the back of the truck's spacious bed – where the canopy ended and the blue day beamed in. Sephiroth was silhouetted against the rolling green hills.

(Cloud recalls this moment as both himself and Zack. As both sick and healthy. As both afraid of and in love with Sephiroth. Cautiously he focuses on Zack's memories, to see as much as he can.)

Sephiroth was lit up by the morning sun. The white of his pauldrons and hair glinted and stung Zack's eyes, so his turned his gaze out of the truck. They looked out at the lea. The beach and Costa del Sol disappeared behind a green bluff. Any last pretence of a dirt road had given way to calm, wild terrain.

"I heard the kid call you 'sir'," Sephiroth goaded.

"Nothing wrong with being professional," Zack grinned. "_Sir_."

"Very cute."

"Ain't I just?" Zack pulled a yellow hair off of his glove and let it fly into the wind. "All right, it's briefing time. Who, what, where, when, and why?"

"I should hope the 'who' is obvious."

"That's us, right?"

Sephiroth just gave him that look. The look that would make Cloud hide behind a crate. The look that would make Zack's arm-hairs stand on end.

"We're heading to an East Corel hamlet called Trommel's Moor." Sephiroth explained. "There has been reports of Shinra infrastructure failing."

"I didn't know we had development in Pommel's Moor."

"Trommel's Moor. And we don't. Officially. But Corel has been our toughest nut to crack in terms of mako deals. The President believes that by helping out the smaller towns—"

"We'll have some sway in the election next year. So we're bribing the regional leaders with infrastructure, clean water, toilet paper, yadda, yadda, yadda."

"Clear deduction as usual. Good work, Zack."

Zack positively beamed at that. "So we've got all the bases covered except the 'why.'"

"Because we were ordered to."

"I figured you'd say something like that. Not that I don't like a paycheque, but isn't this more of a job for, I-dunno, architects?"

"The village leader, a man named Josiah Saen, seems to be under the impression that military action might be necessary."

"Man, those must be some big termites."

"Something like that."

"What do you mean? Do you know something I don't?"

Sephiroth smiled. "I always do."

The truck rolled through the hills towards the east. Cloud looked ahead, through the cab windshield. They were cresting a hill, and below them was an enormous expanse of forest, the largest on the Planet. The forest of Corel.


	2. Chapter 2

**Grangalan Dolls**

**Chapter 2  
**

(Cloud remembers through his own eyes. The memories are more potent. Less painful.)

Through the little slot between the trembling helmet and the breath-wet mask, Cloud's eyes watched through the windshield as they drove. The trees – they were called Corel Spruce until the world forgot they ever existed – advanced on them like an infinite army of tall, green soldiers. The truck swerved onto a makeshift trench. Each root they rolled over lurched Cloud's insides and a fresh spray of sweat coated the inside of his mask.

He could turn and look out the back of the truck, but obstructing the view was Zack and Sephiroth – talking, laughing. Cloud felt voyeuristic watching them. He felt guilty and curious and jealous and ashamed. He looked beyond his superiors, but soon it was all trees. The road was straight but so deep into the woods that Cloud couldn't see the plains anymore.

The truck came through into a hilled clearing, and veered to the right to avoid going uphill. Cloud's stomach gave one last vault before they rolled to a stop. Zack was already leaping out of the back. Sephiroth waited patiently for the ramp to lower. Cloud could feel his insides settling and for the first time he looked at Colin.

It was like looking into a mirror. Colin was the same size and build as Cloud – that is to say, 170 centimetres (give or take) and scrawny as a zenene. With the blue uniform and face-obscuring mask, Cloud saw what Colin meant when he called the two of them 'unremarkables.' Even though Cloud couldn't see his face, he knew exactly what expression Colin had on. Eyebrows slightly raised, a smirk tugging at the corners of his heavily-lipped mouth. A self-deprecating joke gurgling up his throat – one that would be at everyone's expense, no doubt. Cloud managed to find his feet before that could happen and walked to the back. He came closer to Sephiroth, but as soon as he had caught up with him Sephiroth moved down the ramp and onto the soil. Cloud followed silently, resting his hands on the sling of his gun.

Colin and Cloud surveyed the surrounding area. The woods were thick and dark, but no sign of movement. The clearing they were in was a neat dome of brown and green mottled earth. A dozen or so wooden constructs peppered the hillside – only a few had more than one floor.

Zack knelt down and grabbed the dirt with his bare hand. "This is funny," he said. "This soil is strange, it feels like powdered chalk."

"That's Corel," Sephiroth said. "Sandy ground. It's rougher up North, but it yields more the closer you get to the river."

"Is this where they want to build the reactor?"

"No, it'll be up North."

"But the land is even less fertile than here? What's the point?"

"Fertility and richness in mako don't always go hand in hand. Like every rule, there are exceptions. The mountains are in the North. Within is a rich reserve of coal. Where there's coal, there's mako."

A man was coming down the hill towards them. Cloud and Colin stroked their guns but kept their cool, eyeing him. He was medium build, and as he got closer they noted his salt-and-pepper hair and full beard. "Welcome!" he called down to them. "You must be from Shinra. Welcome to Trommel's Moor, gentlemen."

"Well met," Sephiroth approached him. In a casual tone, but with a dignified clarity, he said, "I am Sephiroth."

Everyone was still for a moment. It was rare for Sephiroth to introduce himself – most people knew who he was instantly. The approaching man halted in his tracks.

"Uh." He stammered. "Yes. It would be hard in this day and age not to recognize that name. Well met, Sephiroth. My name is Josiah Saen, I'm the mayor here. And who are your associates?"

Sephiroth motioned behind him. "My partner here is Zack Fair. We are representatives from SOLDIER. The others are our escort and convoy party."

"Welcome," Saen nodded to each of them.

"Howdy," Zack smiled.

"May I offer you some tea? Still cool enough to enjoy a hot cup. I have a kettle on in my office now."

Sephiroth smiled and gestured for Saen to lead the way. The party made their way up the gentle slope of Trommel's Moor. Zack noticed (and Cloud remembers) the back of Saen's coat. It was a dusty brown long coat, but it had three diagonal slashes from the small of his back until the tattered hem.

_'I know fashion trends are getting kinda wacky,'_ Zack thought. _'But something tells me that coat didn't look like that on the rack at Ronsons.'_

(Five years later, Cloud nearly laughs out loud at that)

The City Hall, if they could call it that, was a one level wooden house. Inside was a small gathering hall in lieu of a living room and a smaller office in the back. Cloud and Colin scanned quickly for danger – lazily. If ever a city hall were an actual ambush site, Cloud and Colin figured they would be dangerously overprepared anyway. As Colin once grinningly remarked, "Protecting a SOLDIER is like castrating a mule. We are just a redundancy."

"Take a seat in the office, gentlemen," Saen approached a coal fireplace on the East wall, where a kettle steamed. "I'll be in with your tea in a moment."

Sephiroth and Zack headed into the office. Cloud lingered by the coal fireplace. Saen was lifting the kettle off of the coals, when he looked at Cloud. "Can I help you?"

"Uh," was all he could say. His legs kicked to life and he forced them to move him forward, towards the office.

"Cloud?" Colin called from behind him.

Cloud stopped again. Ahead of him, in the office, Sephiroth was giving him that look that felt like a sword through his heart. Even Zack's eyebrows were raised in confusion.

Colin grabbed Cloud's arm and pulled him away from the office, and out of the building. "You idiot." Colin grunted. They stood on either side of the door to city hall, cradling their guns. How could Cloud have forgotten basic etiquette? MPs don't participate in palavers. Only SOLDIERs do the talking. That's one of the things their rank represented. One of the things that separated a SOLDIER from a common man.

(Cloud can see into the office meeting now, though.)

Saen was steeping their tea in the main room. Zack could feel Sephiroth's agitation for Cloud's slip-up. He responded by leaning back in his chair and putting his hands behind his head. "You know, it raises some good questions."

"How so?" Sephiroth asked.

"Well, for one, why _isn't_ our entourage allowed to participate in the discussion? I mean, it felt natural for Cloud to want to join in, so why does he have to stay outside?"

"Because that's how it is," Sephiroth said.

"That's always your answer. You know, President Shinra is great, but he's mortal. And he's gonna croak one day. And then it'll be people like you and me who inherit all these rules and the power to change them if they don't serve the greater good."

"Just because you have the power to do something, doesn't mean it's a good idea to do it."

"Right. But I figure that I should get busy thinking about that kind of thing now. And if it turns out that it _is_ a good idea, why wait to bring up the issue?"

Sephiroth crossed his arms. "You have a lot to learn about power."

Zack harrumphed, sitting back up. "Nobody knows everything."

Saen came into the room with three mugs of tea. He sat on the other side of a desk made of the same dark Corel wood that made up the building and the surrounding forests. "This tea is a lemon sandalwood. Imported from Corel town proper. Enjoy."

(Cloud can taste the tea – it's a flavour he might not like had he tried it himself, but Zack liked it, and somehow that's enough to sell Cloud on it.)

Sephiroth sipped lightly – just enough to pay his respects to the ritual. "Now, Mr. Saen. You have entered into a contract with the Shinra company in which you have paid in advance for military assistance. Shinra has responded by sending us. The office of the President believes that Mr. Fair and I are more than adequate assistance based on the funding they have received for this operation. If this is not to your liking, we are more than willing to open up a channel of communication between—"

"No, no, it's fine." Saen sipped his tea. "This situation calls for brains as much as braun, and sending a couple of First-Classes exceeds my expectations."

"We're glad to hear it," Sephiroth said. "What is the situation?"

"You weren't briefed before coming?"

"We would prefer to hear it from you, if only to familiarize ourselves with your point of view."

"All right. My problem is that our wood is deteriorating."

Zack let out a blast of a laugh before covering his mouth. Saen and Sephiroth both turned their heads slowly towards him. He tried to compose himself. "Oh man! Sorry, it's just... wood."

"Would you prefer to wait outside with our entourage?" Sephiroth asked.

"I'm fine," Zack shook his hands. "Please go on."

"Right," Saen turned back to Sephiroth. "Over the last month, we've seen three instances of roofs collapsing and walls becoming brittle underneath the weight of the frames."

Zack piped in again. "So this, uh, deteriorating wood, you think it has something to do with the infrastructure that Shinra Inc. gave you?"

"I'm not sure what to think at the moment."

"Because we haven't encountered this problem before, and with Reeve Tuesti at the head of Shinra's urban development department for so long, you'd think—"

"That's enough, Zack," Sephiroth said.

"All I'm saying is that maybe the problem isn't with the infrastructure being faulty, but perhaps it's a problem with the way it was implemented or the wood itself."

"Be careful, Mr. Fair." Saen's smile dropped from his face. "Questioning the talents of the contractors who built our fine town is one thing, but do not overreach by insulting the strength and virility of our wood."

"Okay, you're _trying_ to make me laugh now, aren't you?"

"Zack, leave this office." Sephiroth ordered.

He didn't need to repeat himself. Zack stood and walked out of the room, compelled by Sephiroth's command. It wasn't until he was outside with Cloud that he felt indignant at all.

"That wasn't fair!" He belted into the open air.


End file.
